Section 2.
LOSS ARISING, IF A NUMBER OF EFFECTIVE HANDS BE TAKEN FROM THE PLANTATION.
The capital sunk in land, buildings and machinery is known to be very extensive in West India plantations.
We have now to inquire whether, under the mode proposed, the proprietor will receive fair indemnification for this capital, from the slaves who may obtain their freedom. It is conceived that, in every point of view, loss is occasioned; and that while the plan of increasing the price of the slave according to his relative utility to the estate is calculated to engender the greatest discontent generally, it at the same time affords inadequate compensation to the proprietor, in regard to those who may purchase their manumission.
Lord Bathurst and the writer of the “Remarks” consider the means of fair compensation for the fixed capital to be secured, as appears in the following extract from his Lordship’s despatch:—
“If by these regulations an adequate compensation be not secured to the owner, it must either be because the persons who are authorised to decide upon the amount are not likely to be fit or fair arbitrators, or because there are restrictions which will prevent the arbitrators from the free exercise of their judgment. Now it must be admitted nothing can be fairer than the proposed selection of arbitrators in the Trinidad Order: viz., that in the event of the owner and the slave not agreeing on the price of the slave’s manumission, the owner should appoint one, the protector of slaves another, and that an umpire should be appointed by the chief judge. It is clear that an arbitration on such principle would protect the interests of the owner, and if there were any objection it would be that the bias was in his favour. As to restrictions or limitations, there are none to obstruct the free exercise of their judgment.”
To this it may, in the first place, be replied, that the principle of appraisement in its practical operation supposes the price of slaves to continue to be regulated in the West India colonies by competition in the market, like commodities in commerce.
Before we go further, then, let us examine how West India property stands at present.
The following are the Gazette average prices of sugar for the last seven years: viz.,
1820 35s. 0d.
1821 31 0
1822 29 4½
1823 34 6
1824 30 11½
1825 38 7¼
1826 35 6½
It might be presumed, that the amount of capital which an individual would be willing to vest in the purchase of a property would be proportioned to its net returns. But it can be proved, that in 1819, 65,000l. sterling was offered for a sugar-estate in Jamaica, and refused, as below its estimated value. About that period it was considered, that the increasing consumption of sugar, while the means of production were limited, presented a very favourable prospect for the West India planter. Accordingly, in the year 1820, 70,000l. sterling was offered for the abovementioned estate, and also refused for the same reason. But when the proceedings in this country in 1823 and 1824 began to operate, a mighty change took place. It can be shown that distrust gradually arose, and as the proceedings became more and more critical, in the same proportion and as quickly did the value of property progressively decline. The demands of alarmed creditors from all quarters fell on the planters; they became embarrassed; and the very same property for which, in 1820, 70,000l. sterling had been refused, when again put up for sale in 1826, found no real bidding higher than 32,000l. currency, being less than 23,000l. sterling.